Hey, first game thread. How does this feel?

The depth chart is scary at a few positions. David Henry is the 2 deep? Chappell as the nickle is questionable. I rewatched his film, and he has those stiff hips I never like to see, but he also makes good breaks on the ball and seems like an aggressive defender. A few other positions as well, but let’s watch a game before getting too far into personnel.

With regard to Weber State, I researched them a bit, and it looks like McBride had them on an upswing, and now they’re on the other end of that. Jay Hill seems like a pretty good coach, and GA spoke highly of him, so maybe he turns things around. I haven’t look into any JC transfers they signed and teams like Weber St can change drastically year to year based on transfers. I’m assuming they’re not 2-10 bad again this year.

All that being said, I do have a feeling the Beavs will be able to hand the ball off and run all over this team. Maybe not in the first quarter, but as the game goes on and the OL wears Weber St down. That will be the key to victory. Now I think GA might be tempted to throw the ball a lot just to get the QBs reps for Michigan. That’s the danger and delicate balance here: the must run enough to wear down Weber St, and throw enough to give the QBs confidence going into next week. If the QBs start out with jitters and a bunch of incompletions, GA can’t force the issue trying to get them on track. He needs to resort to the run and short, quick pass if the QBs go into meltdown.

Hopefully the QBs come out firing on all cylinders, though, and it’s a non issue. I expect McM to have some early jitters and then play well. I don’t know what to expect from Collins passing wise, but I expect a few 20 yard gains on the ground from him.

I have a very good feeling about this game. Everyone is jacked for this era to begin, it’s at home, it’s a lesser opponent. How can’t you love the Beavs in a landslide, even with the QB “uncertainty”?

46-13, Beavers

Open discussion through the weekend.

Barring any big news, I will see you guys on Monday (game week!).

Less than 10 days away, so it’s time to start discussing these guys. The only good mainstream preview I found was this. That makes it sound like they could be a decent team, but then I checked out the forums, and fans don’t sound optimistic.

Any idea how good or bad Weber State is? I know we’re all assuming a win, but has anyone actually looked at them?

I thought these comments from Sitake were interesting, and at the end we see Andersen say they’re putting Weber State stuff into practice. It’s nice to hear they’ll use five WR sets, since their WR corp is the best in the Pac-12 — Bolden, Villamin, Jarmon, Guyton, and Lucas. They can even go seven deep with Gilmore and Dockery completely serviceable players. WR is absolutely stacked.

I’m expecting Bolden and Villamin to be the main guys just by default, but Jarmon and Guyton have huge upside and could ultimately be better fits in this offense (dubious they’d jump Boldon or “Villytron”, though). Lucas has huge upside as well, but he probably won’t get as many snaps as the other four unless he breaks big gainers early in the year, and they simply can’t keep him off the field. Another possibility is using Lucas on kick/punt returns.

Some other guys I like on offense: the entire O-line (people are sleeping on them), Ryan Nall (needs to lose 10-15lbs, but I think he can do some damage as-is), Caleb Smith (this is his elusive breakout year), and Chris Brown. Brent VanderVeen and Deltron Sands are sleepers. I like Sands more than Haskins. Shane Wallen has looked pesky. I don’t expect a ton from him, but he could be a guy who is productive in a specific and limited role and get tough yardage. Zach Lucas and Blake Brandel are good looking OL backups. One final player I should mention is Noah Togiai. He looks fluid as a pass catcher, but with the TE depth I don’t know if he’ll factor in, but I like him.

I was also reading about the effects of time zone changes on the body (and how late afternoon is the ideal time to play sporting events), and it made me think the Michigan game will likely be a MI blowout. That thought will be revisited after I see how they perform vs Weber State.